CAE Listening Exam Format

On this page you will watch my 'CAE Listening Exam Format' video. It's really important to know the format of every C1 Advanced: CAE exam paper. If you know what to expect in the exam, you can prepare yourself better. This will also reduce your nerves, which is one of the key reasons why students fail the CAE.

So you should watch the video below and write down the format through a dictation exercise.

Dictations improve all your different language skills and even though you may find the dictation below slow or boring (I apologise)...following it will teach you the format of the CAE listening test and ensure you have a written copy of this.

Remember, you can slow down or speed up the dictation in the settings control. You can also write the dictation on my online dictation practice worksheet.

If you followed the instructions and wrote down the dictation in the video above...you can now compare your writing with the exact dictation passage below...

CAE Listening Exam Format Dictation Passage

"CAE Listening General Format

Length: 40 minutes

How many parts: 4

The Listening paper has 4 parts including multiple choice and sentence completion questions. You listen to conversations with different people, set in different contexts. In order to prepare for this paper, you need to be able to locate and select both general and specific information.

The Listening paper contains 'distractors', which are words deliberately chosen to confuse listeners and make you choose incorrect answers. For example, in multiple choice questions, you may hear a word from option 'b' in the recording. This does not mean you should choose option 'b', as another option may be better. You need to understand the speakers’ overall meaning and purpose in each section.
The recordings are played twice in every part of the C1 Advanced Listening paper.

Marks awarded:

Part 1 there are 6 questions and you are awarded 6 marks

Part 2 there are 8 questions and you are awarded 8 marks

Part 3 there are 6 questions and you are awarded 6 marks

Part 4 there are 10 questions and you are awarded 10 marks

Question: Essay.

Ways of testing English learners' listening skills.

Multiple choice tests.
Filling in the blank exercises.
Written summaries of opinions and attitudes.

Write an essay for your teacher in 220-260 words. You should discuss two of the ways of testing English learners’ listening skills from your notes. You should explain which brings about the most benefit and give reasons to support your answer."

Dictation Marks

How many mistakes did you make in the dictation exercise above?

It's good to track how many mistakes you're making, so:

1: Download this spreadsheet to your computer.

2. Go to the 'Dictations' sheet at the bottom of the spreadsheet and write down how many mistakes you made:

CAE Listening Exam Format - Revision

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